Intel signs Nokia, wins the cellphone war

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Today, Intel officially announced a new contract with Nokia, the number one mobile product maker in the world. Intel will deliver Atom-based system-on-chips (SoCs) to Nokia for use in their netbook, smartbook and smartphone platforms. With this announcement, Intel immediately jumps into the number one spot as Nokia’s annual sales of smartphones are roughly 150M per year (411K per day). It is estimated that by 2013, those sales will exceed 450M per year, or about 1.4M units sold per day.

Intel will use their upcoming 32nm “Medfield” Atom-based SoCs with CPU and NAND flash memory as the integral component of Nokia’s mobile platform in the netbook, smartbook and smartphone. Nokia is well known for using a single-platform for their entire range of devices. Today, they sell roughly 150M smartphones annually, all running Symbian OS.

Intel writes:

Intel Corporation and Nokia today announced a long-term relationship to develop a new class of Intel® Architecture-based mobile computing device and chipset architectures which will combine the performance of powerful computers with high-bandwidth mobile broadband communications and ubiquitous Internet connectivity.

And:

The Intel and Nokia effort includes collaboration in several open source mobile Linux software projects. Intel will also acquire a Nokia HSPA/3G modem IP license for use in future products.

Intel is looking to capitalize on publicly available open source software efforts, such as their current Moblin OS platform, as well as Maemo, which today is used in Nokia’s N810 Internet Tablet device. An additional range of key open source technologies will be used for mobile computing such as: oFono, ConnMan, Mozilla, X.Org, BlueZ, D-BUS, Tracker, GStreamer, and PulseAudio. Intel says “Collectively, these technologies will provide an open source standards-based means to deliver a wealth of mobile Internet and communication experiences, with rich graphics and multimedia capabilities.”

In addition to providing SoCs from Intel to Nokia for their platform, Intel will also license Nokia’s HSPA/3G Modem Technology. These technologies will be used in “developing advanced mobile computing solutions that deliver a powerful and flexible computing experience – combining the best-in-class 3GPP modem technology with the high performance and low power consumption of future Intel Architecture-based platforms”, according to Intel.

Intel’s Corporate Senior VP and GM of Ultra Mobility Group said:

This Intel and Nokia collaboration unites and focuses many of the brightest computing and communications minds in the world, and will ultimately deliver open and standards-based technologies, which history shows drive rapid innovation, adoption and consumer choice. With the convergence of the Internet and mobility as the team’s only barrier, I can only imagine the innovation that will come out of our unique relationship with Nokia. The possibilities are endless.

Nokia’s Executive VP Kai Öistämö said:

Today’s announcement represents a significant commitment to work together on the future of mobile computing, and we plan to turn our joint research into action. We will explore new ideas in designs, materials and displays that will go far beyond devices and services on the market today. This collaboration will be compelling not only for our companies, but also for our industries, our partners and, of course, for consumers.

By signing this contract, and when products officially begin rolling off the assembly line, Intel will immediately move ahead of Apple as the largest producer of advanced smartphones, enabling its target x86-based OS and products to become ubiquitous in not only desktop, netbook, notebook and server spaces (where x86 runs 80% of the world’s computers), but also in future cell phones, as Nokia will be selling an estimated 1B units per year by 2013, with 450M of those devices being smartphones or other Intel Atom-powered products.

In the Q&A following today’s briefing for the press, it was revealed that this joint partnership is not exclusive. Intel’s Chandrasekher said that both companies are free to continue developing technology with their existing partners, and that the announcement today is in a joint collaborative effort for future products between Nokia and Intel. It does not preclude any existing technology research efforts.

While neither Intel nor Nokia have given timelines for products, or even true product outlines thus far, both are looking at the possibilities which exist. The thing that strikes me the most about this announcement is how significantly Intel has lept ahead of Apple in terms of smartphone penetration.

Theo Valich wrote about that fact in relation to three companies: Nvidia, Texas Instruments and Qualcomm. In 2006, Nvidia announced their Tegra SoC, which is ARM-based and could’ve been used by Nokia in their existing cellphone and smartphone products. However, this reality never materialized.

The current relationship between Nokia and Intel also affects TI, makers of the ARM-based chips which populate smartphones and related products today, as well as Qualcomm, the maker of advanced 3G and later communication technologies for wireless broadband.

With this partnership, two industry leaders have teamed up bringing incredible R&D potentials to the convergent markets of compute and communication. As with Intel’s vPro technology, which provides a technology foundation of chipset, communications and compute, the Intel/Nokia partnership will provide a similar technology foundation with chipset, local communications, compute, graphics, storage and Internet communications.

The potential of changing our worlds, so to speak, should not be underestimated. At 32nm, Intel’s Atom-based SoCs will provide heavy compute and graphics abilities on much lower power platforms, meaning a better user experience with increased functionality and interoperability with desktop counterparts due to the open-source/open-platform initiatives.

One further note I’d like to comment on, and that’s Intel’s significant push away from proprietary platforms and architectures. It was mentioned no fewer than five times today during the 45 minute conference call, by both Intel and Nokia, just how important the open platforms are to future computing.

In a recent call with Intel on Geek.com’s upcoming Moblin 2.0 review, I asked whether or not Intel is making a hard push away from Microsoft by embracing the Moblin.org open-source effort so strongly (even creating its own fork off the Fedora/Debian line, into a totally new version of Linux which will continue to be supported)? While the answer was an unequivocal “I wouldn’t say that”, all outward evidence suggests that Microsoft is on their way out as a proprietary provider for, at the very least, the low-end netbook and lower markets. The open-source, fast moving, migratory vision of Linux is proving far more appealing to users and tech companies who want to push products out quickly using common desktop design tools.

Speak Your Mind

“With this partnership, two industry leaders have teamed up bringing incredible R&D potentials to the convergent markets of compute and communication.”

Sounds like a classic recipe for disaster straight from Dilbert.

Neither of these companies have proven they have the mojo to provide a world class OS, development platform or distribution system. Nokia in particular has lost major market share and revenue in the past couple years especially in the smart phone sector where the money is. Symbian is stumbling around and every single music and app store initiative by Nokia has been a flop. (Ovi, Comes with Music, etc.
Intel has the most to gain in this deal by simply getting their chips in anyone’s phone. But is this deal is not exclusive, so Intel will not automatically become the world’s No. 1 cell phone chip supplier. Nokia may or may not use this chip in the majority of its phones.

Marto

While this does look like we may get some decent products out of this, I’m not sure why the point has been made several times about how Intel has moved ahead of Apple in the smartphone market. Ok, Intel has gotten into bed with Nokia but thats only akin to sleeping with the boss and saying you’re now in charge of the company.

Perhaps its because;
SEARCH: Apple, smartphone RESULTS: This story = Site Traffic!!! No?

Its very interesting and cool to hear about the moves to open software and platforms especially from big names like Nokia and Intel and I commend this whereever shown.